Rep. Sean Dougherty, D-Philadelphia, is pictured during a news conference earlier this year in Harrisburg.

A Philadelphia-area lawmaker wants Pennsylvania to join the states creating an Intelligent Speed Assistance program to slow down drivers who repeatedly speed.

Dougherty is circulating a co-sponsorship memorandum for a bill he is still drafting. He said 2024 PennDOT crash data showed there were 23,427 speed-related crashes in Pennsylvania, with 357 fatal crashes.

“This translates to 64 speed-related crashes per day,” Dougherty wrote. “These are not just numbers, but rather preventable tragedies that devastate communities across the Commonwealth. Traditional enforcement methods – fines, license points and suspensions – have not been sufficient to deter the most dangerous drivers on the road, especially repeat offenders. More can be done and should be done to prevent speeding-related crashes and save lives.”

Dougherty’s solution is intelligent speed assistance in vehicles. It’s a solution that has been discussed elsewhere, including California and New York. Dougherty doesn’t propose intelligent speed assistance in all new vehicles, but rather wants to establish a program to allow the option of installing speed assistance systems in the cars of individuals convicted of certain speed-related offenses.

“This program would serve as an alternative to suspending a person’s driver’s license and would be required for some repeat offenders,” Dougherty wrote.

California lawmakers approved legislation in 2024 to require the systems be installed in new cars there by 2030. While the original version of the legislation would have required active speed assistance, which would have physically stopped vehicles from speeding, that bill was later amended to require passive speed assistance, which warns drivers when they are speeding but doesn’t force them to slow down.

While the goal of the California bill is to reduce traffic deaths in California, the legislation could impact all new car sales in the U.S. because California’s auto market is so large that car makers would likely just make all of their vehicles comply with the state’s law similar to the way the state’s emissions requirements ended up becoming the industry standard. California’s bill uses GPS technology to compare a vehicle’s speed with a dataset of posted speed limits. Once the car is at least 10 mph over the speed limit, the system would emit “a brief, one-time visual and audio signal to alert the driver.” It’s not known if the technology will include all local roads or if the system will update when local governments change speed limits.

The European Union will require all new cars sold there to have the technology this year, according to the Associated Press, though drivers will be able to turn it off. Last year, according to the AP, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended federal regulators require all new cars to alert drivers when speeding. Their recommendation came after a crash in January 2022 when a man with a history of speeding violations was traveling more than 100 miles per hour when he ran a red light and hit a minivan, killing himself and eight other people.

Dougherty said Virginia and Washington D.C. have already implemented similar programs to address speeding, and Washington State has passed ISA legislation.

“Protecting Pennsylvanians is of utmost importance, and creating an ISA system-based program will help slow down drivers with habitual speeding violations for their own safety and the public’s safety,” Dougherty said. “Pennsylvania must not fall behind in adopting proven measures that can save lives. It is time we do the same to make Pennsylvania roads safer. This legislation is not about punishment – it is about prevention.”